Mastering... A pain in the ass

[beyondblue]

Who else thinks mastering is a pain in the ass? So far I'm using a pretty good technique with the multiband compressor in FL Stuido. I even out the levels then apply the limiter and that seems to do the trick long enough til' I can master the rest of it with hardware.

[Krank]

mastering is a pain in the ass.....if you are a noob

[Krank]

At 4/11/10 07:54 PM, LaForge wrote:

At 4/11/10 07:52 PM, Bjra wrote: mastering is a pain in the ass.....if you are a noob

I'm not a noob and it's still a pain in the ass.

mastering becomes quite easy later on. its very confusing even after you have done it for a long time. until you are able to keep a clear vision during mastering, then it becomes easy sailing

[IKONiC]

At 4/11/10 07:54 PM, LaForge wrote:

At 4/11/10 07:52 PM, Bjra wrote: mastering is a pain in the ass.....if you are a noob

I'm not a noob and it's still a pain in the ass.

Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.

Also, nobody here can master on newgrounds. Mix, yes. Master, no. Nobody has the equipment to properly master. Think about it this way; people do mastering for a living. Putting a multiband compressor and a limiter and whatnot is mixing, not mastering.

Mixing = Not mastering. Keep practicing mixing.

[Krank]

At 4/11/10 08:00 PM, IKONiC wrote: Mixing = Not mastering. Keep practicing mixing.

does it really matter if someone properly knows the difference between mixing and mastering. the final product is all that matters or am i missing something here lewls

[beyondblue]

At 4/11/10 07:56 PM, Bjra wrote:

At 4/11/10 07:54 PM, LaForge wrote:

At 4/11/10 07:52 PM, Bjra wrote: mastering is a pain in the ass.....if you are a noob

I'm not a noob and it's still a pain in the ass.

mastering becomes quite easy later on. its very confusing even after you have done it for a long time. until you are able to keep a clear vision during mastering, then it becomes easy sailing

It's true about becoming easier the more you do it. But every song needs to be mastered differently thus making it a challenge at times to master. The more you do it though the better you'll handle it.

[Mich]

At 4/11/10 08:00 PM, IKONiC wrote: Putting a multiband compressor and a limiter and whatnot is mixing, not mastering.

If you've exported your mixdown, and then work on that export with compressors and such, you are no longer mixing. Mixing is the process where you work on the place in the audio spectrum of every mixer track, so you can't do that when you've already exported it.
At least that's what seems logical to me. Mixing is done with the mixer tracks in the mixer, not with a compressor on the whole thing at once... Because then you're not quite mixing anything any more.
Except of course if you'd call using an equalizer on the master mixing the certain frequency regions.

Mixing = Not mastering. Keep practicing mixing.

Exactly.

[Mrmilkcarton]

I master my own songs now? Pretty sure I shouldn't do it myself but I do MASTER my songs. IE: I export wav and then compress, EQ, and do other master bus stuff. Its called mastering cause you put shit on the master bus.

[Gravey]

At 4/11/10 08:00 PM, IKONiC wrote:

Also, nobody here can master on newgrounds. Mix, yes. Master, no. Nobody has the equipment to properly master.

I beg to differ.

Mixing = Not mastering. Keep practicing mixing.

This is an odd way of looking at it. You can't possibly master a song well if its mix is way out of sync. But then again, a mix never really has that same sparkle without someone doing a good job in mastering the song. It's not like one is totally independent of the other. On the contrary, they are very important aspects of production that are dependent on each other.

[SineRider]

in soviet Russia ass pains you.

Just work on your mixing, you can't polish a turd

[Krank]

At 4/11/10 09:51 PM, SineRider wrote: in soviet Russia ass pains you.

Just work on your mixing, you can't polish a turd

pick good sounds in the first place. this is more important than mixing. this is more important than mastering

[Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud]

At 4/11/10 09:51 PM, SineRider wrote: in soviet Russia ass pains you.

Just work on your mixing, you can't polish a turd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qS FI

Apparently you can.

[Reaper93]

Another thread about "MIXING IS NOT MASTERING YO! HURDUR!"

Nobody cares anymore about the minute difference between mixing and mastering in the case of digital music production, enough already. Premastering in this case is basically the same as "post"mastering unless you are for some reason exporting to a low quality or highly compressed file type or actually making an album, in which case yes, mastering will be its own distinct activity that probably could not be accomplished pre-render. But for the majority of tracks on newgrounds, premaster = postmaster, end of. And I don't want to hear about how premastering is really just mixing, it's got master in the fucking name.

You people need to take a freakin' break already with the mixing =/= mastering spiel.

[djInTheDark]

How bout this for a policy?

Do what ever it takes to make it sound good. And if you can't (don't want to) do that, then I guess it doesn't really matter, does it?

[Zero123Music]

I love it^^ especially when everything is organised, your music really comes alive once you master it.

the only thing I hate about the music production process is the crashes :/

[Zero123Music]

At 4/12/10 12:34 AM, LaForge wrote:

At 4/11/10 08:23 PM, Mich wrote:

Mixing = Not mastering. Keep practicing mixing.

Exactly.

What's the difference?

Yeah, why export the track? then add effects and limiters etc. when you can do that with alot more precision inside your sequencer - to me, it just looks like making perfecting the song harder for yourselves

[Gravey]

At 4/12/10 12:55 AM, Zero123Music wrote:

Yeah, why export the track? then add effects and limiters etc. when you can do that with alot more precision inside your sequencer - to me, it just looks like making perfecting the song harder for yourselves

It allows you to get a totally different tone and squeeze the track more. All in all this thread is just going to turn into flaming, but all the same its important to note mastering and mixing are quite different. The two do go hand in hand though.

The idea behind mastering is that when someone cuts and mixes a song they export it. It is then mastered BY SOMEONE ELSE because that allows for a new perspective. The purpose of mastering is to have someone else take the final mix and bring out the colors in the music.

The reason that someone else is used for mastering rather than the recording/mixing engineer is that once you get the song cut it's become one of your babies, in a manner of speaking. Typically an artist/producer can't really hear what is lacking within a mix, because they were the ones who created the mix. So they feel that the final product is just right. But by exporting the file as a .wav and having someone else master it, you allow for a second perspective to be used. And thus the song typically ends up having a richer and better commercial sound because an outside producer can really hear what is lacking in a song a lot easier than the recording/mixing producer.

I'm guessing the argument for this would be "But I know what I want a song to sound like, and therefore I should master it myself to make it how I want it." That could be the case, but that being said it is always good to get that outside perspective because when you master your own music you are limiting yourself.

Thus for most people on Newgrounds it isn't a very big issue because most people here can't afford to send their music to professional mastering houses/studios. This is often why a lot of songs lack that extra shine that most commercial music has.

But this is the big reason why mastering is post production. In the commercial world its all done out of house in order to allow for that extra perspective to help make a song shine. And from my experience a song typically sounds very different after it has been mastered by someone else because they hear the song differently. Whether that is better or not is up to each and every situation. But there is a definite method to the madness, mastering is not done as post production by sheer happenstance. :-P

[Mich]

At 4/12/10 02:35 AM, Gravey wrote:

At 4/12/10 12:55 AM, Zero123Music wrote:

Yeah, why export the track? then add effects and limiters etc. when you can do that with alot more precision inside your sequencer - to me, it just looks like making perfecting the song harder for yourselves

It allows you to get a totally different tone and squeeze the track more. All in all this thread is just going to turn into flaming, but all the same its important to note mastering and mixing are quite different. The two do go hand in hand though.
+ a nice explanation as to why mastering is done post-production

That gives a nice perspective. In fact, I hadn't really thought of it that way. I think it'd be a good idea to sort of collab with others, do mastering for each other's songs, to get just that. Of course the people who decide to work together really need to know from each other that they manage to master well enough for their taste.

On another note; I'd like to pop in this linky: http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/search/top ic/Mixing+mastering

[sorohanro]

At 4/11/10 10:08 PM, Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud wrote:

At 4/11/10 09:51 PM, SineRider wrote: in soviet Russia ass pains you.

Just work on your mixing, you can't polish a turd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qS FI

Apparently you can.

Man, your link just made my day :))))
Wow... so that's what Lady Gaga was before... Lady Caca polished :)))))
Now that's official.

[beyondblue]

It allows you to get a totally different tone and squeeze the track more. All in all this thread is just going to turn into flaming, but all the same its important to note mastering and mixing are quite different. The two do go hand in hand though.

How bout this for a policy?

Do what ever it takes to make it sound good. And if you can't (don't want to) do that, then I guess it doesn't really matter, does it?

Everybody has their own way of mastering. Yes, some of it is mixing but a lot of it is mastering when you start compressing and making siganls sound good. If someone is doing it more difficult than others, who cares if it sounds good. Eventually they'll learn how to make it easier on themselves.

[B0UNC3]

Welcome to Newgrounds, the place where both mixing and mastering are 2 completely useless practises.

Jokes aside...

If the mixdown is perfect standalone leave it the fuck alone. There are infact instances where mastering (the act of making shit come alive aka post processing) isn't really all that necessary and wont really add anything to the production.

Yes, not joking...

Granted, that does not cover the "CD/Vinyl opt" which is indeed quite usefull anytime you're going to release a production on a CD/vinyl.
Anyway, back to my coffee...Cheers

[Calamaistr]

I still have no clue what the hell mastering is and how you do it, and what the difference is between not mastering and mastering.

I have no problem making my music sound the way i want it to without this mastering thing either.

[Gunkel]

I hate mastering tracks but it is necessary. I don't usually export a track and master it like that, I usually mix it down in the actual track and if it doesn't sound alright in the actual track I change the EQ inside the track. If it sounds fine I don't see the point in mastering it any further, really. :)

[AlexCo]

Mastering is eaaaaaaasyyyyyyyyy

Mixing is the real bastard.

[jwhitt]

What in the hell are you people talking about?

Mastering is the process of preparing and transferring audio onto a data storage device. This device is called the master, from which a recording is mass produced.

When you export to .mp3, .wav, or .ogg from within FL Studio or whatever software you're using, that file would be the master and what you just did by exporting to file called is mastering. Technically you didn't do it, FL Studio did. If you were going to transfer it to CD, the preperation for putting the audio on to the CD would be mastering as well, I guess.

When converting to a higher quality storage formats from obsolete formats, you Re-Master, meaning you take the master (or a very good copy) and prepare it (recompress, amplify, fix tape-hiss, etc.) in order to make a better copy.

Everybody knows what mixing is, so I won't go into details. :)

Sorry if I come across as a bit of dick, I don't mean to.

[amaterasu]

Yo dawg I heard you like mastering so we put a master in your mastering so you can master while you're mastering

[jwhitt]

At 4/14/10 07:41 PM, amaterasu wrote: Yo dawg I heard you like mastering so we put a master in your mastering so you can master while you're mastering

Thank god, I thought I'd have to do my mastering without a master while I'm mastering for at least SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS.

Also... none of what you just said makes any sense. At least, when I'm not mastering in that master you guys put in so I can master while I'm mastering.

When did newgrounds forum become /b/?

[amaterasu]

At 4/14/10 07:50 PM, jwhitt wrote: Also... none of what you just said makes any sense. At least, when I'm not mastering in that master you guys put in so I can master while I'm mastering.

When did newgrounds forum become /b/?

If you haven't been around here very long, you probably don't realize that the topics of mixing and mastering have been talked to death.

And I'm tired of telling people, like you, how they have a terrible misconception about each process.

[Gravey]

At 4/14/10 07:56 PM, amaterasu wrote:

If you haven't been around here very long, you probably don't realize that the topics of mixing and mastering have been talked to death.

And I'm tired of telling people, like you, how they have a terrible misconception about each process.

Its not as obnoxious as people posting new threads whining about zero voters. :-P

You have a point though for sure.

[jwhitt]

At 4/14/10 07:56 PM, amaterasu wrote: And I'm tired of telling people, like you, how they have a terrible misconception about each process.

implying that I haven't been around newgrounds for very long

This is a new account, I've used newgrounds and newgrounds' forum for quite a while under a different account. Don't assume anything about me, buddy.

...and all of what I said is corroborated by Audio Mastering's entry in Wikipedia.

Source: Wikipedia

If you don't like a thread, stop posting in it and let it die. Pissing people off doesn't help anybody. Have a nice life.